


Inevitablity

by surestsmile



Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-02
Updated: 2011-09-02
Packaged: 2017-10-23 08:29:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/248275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/surestsmile/pseuds/surestsmile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Perhaps everything that had happened was orchestrated in the palm of Hanekoma's hand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Inevitablity

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for latter parts of _Subarashiki Kono Sekai/The World Ends With You_

He thinks he really shouldn't be surprised by Joshua anymore, but somehow the errant Composer always seemed to be able to come up with something even more shocking. Certainly, at first he only thought that Joshua had knocked someone unconscious, until Joshua settles the other down in a chair, almost gently. The boy is definitely dead, Hanekoma can see the perfect circle in his forehead, a small trickle of blood matting the messy fringe.

"I've found my proxy," Joshua pants in explanation before he collapses in his own chair. Hanekoma resists the urge to bolt to the entrance of his cafe and pull down the shutters, and even so, the casual saunter he employs to get there feels a mite too forced. He's thankful that business is always so overwhelmingly slow that the cafe is empty, he would have disliked kicking out the few regulars who dropped by now and then.

Besides, it isn't every day that your charge brings back a dead body. He has to give credit to Joshua that apparently no one in busy Shibuya had seen the teen dragging the corpse. Then again, Shibuya has always been wrapped up in itself, so it's not that impossible to imagine. Hanekoma walks over to his counter, and the tremble of his hands as he prepares a new cup of expresso betrays his feelings. There is little success at getting his hands to stop shaking.

"I see that you have already sent him on his way," he finally remarks over the noisy hum of the machine. Joshua laughs, his eyes on the dead kid. The situation feels a little surreal, but Hanekoma thinks that it's really been a long while since he's seen Joshua look so alive. "So, what's his name?"

"I'm afraid I didn't think to ask."

Hanekoma raises an eyebrow at that. "That's a first for you."

"Well, when you have a homicidal Reaper on your heels and then you suddenly spot your ideal proxy..." A shake of messy bangs as Joshua smiles wryly, "Things happened too fast even for my liking."

"There was a Reaper?" He hopes that his voice is casual enough to cover up the sudden pit of ice that opened up in him. Hanekoma knows exactly which Reaper, after all, he's the one who gave the information about Joshua being the Composer to-

"Sho Minamimoto," Joshua says, and there was that breathy laugh again. "This Game is shaping up to be one of the more interesting ones, and it hasn't even started yet, Mr. H. I am so looking forward to seeing how it all folds out. And how fitting, that it would be my last."

The question that hangs at the tip of his tongue spills forth. "So what did you see in him?"

Joshua's brow creases briefly. "I'm not sure," the Composer says, "He was just there, this sudden brilliant ray, blinding. I had to get him." He reaches out to touch the headphones that still adorned the dead boy. "It's just so...coincidental, you know as well as I do that hardly anyone goes to the Udagawa back streets, goodness knows why you've put that mural there, Mr. H. It's such a waste, really."

His face feels strange, frozen, as though he's forgotten how to laugh. "As long as there's space," Hanekoma says, trying not to think about the sudden series of coincidences. Or perhaps not so coincidental, after all. He slides Joshua the expresso in one of his own privately commissioned mugs, and the customary jibe of asking Joshua to pay rolls from his tongue before he could stop it.

He waits for Joshua to breathe his usual, "You know you love me, Mr H.," but it doesn't come. Instead, there's that dreamy smile of his, the kind that Joshua wears whenever he's immensely pleased with something. No doubt he was making plans already, trying to figure out what Kitaniji Megumi would do to subvert his decision.

Ah, his fickle cat. Still, every day has its end. Joshua may have become bored with Shibuya, but Hanekoma isn't. Even though the Producer is only tasked with watching over the Game like an Angel should, he's invested too much in Shibuya, too much to just let it go. His Game with Joshua is more subtle, but the stakes are the same.

 _Stubborn fool_ , Hanekoma thinks to himself, watches Joshua smile and touch the tip of the dead boy's chin, and wonders in the end who will win.


End file.
